Femtocells are small telecommunication cells that are controlled by an access point. Femtocells are typically used in residential or other small locations. Femtocells connect into telecommunication networks using broadband or other similar types of connections. Femtocells are commonly used in association 3rd and 4th Generation telecommunication systems such as UMTS and LTE systems.
A large number of femtocells can be configured within a macro cell serviced by one or more serving base stations within a telecommunication system thereby creating a high density of femtocells in a given area. As user equipment moves within the macro cell, the user equipment will attempt to connect to the plurality of femtocells that are in the area of the user equipment. As user equipment connects only to femtocells to which it is authorized, the multiple attempts can cause interference and an excess of control messages.
Based on this, there is a need to reduce the number of futile attempts that are made for user equipment to connect to inaccessible femtocells. Since a macro cell may have a large number of femtocells within its operating area, it is difficult to include all the femtocells into its neighbor list. Moreover, a tracking area within a macro cell may include a large number of femtocells, and it is not desirable to send paging packets to user equipment through a femtocell that the user equipment cannot access.
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